Summary We now meet a fourth important character, the Englishman. The Englishman spent a decade at a university trying to find the one true language of the universe. Before traveling to northern Africa, he studied Esperanto, an international language, then religions of the world, and finally alchemy. To the Englishman’s […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 2: Englishman EpisodeSummary and Analysis Part 2: Crystal Merchant Episode (II)
Summary Part Two begins after Santiago has worked for one month at the crystal merchant’s shop. Santiago offers to build a display case for the crystal, which the merchant can put outside his shop to attract potential customers. The crystal merchant fears that passers-by will bump into it and break […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 2: Crystal Merchant Episode (II)Summary and Analysis Part 1: Crystal Merchant Episode (I)
Summary Santiago crosses the Strait of Gibraltar and finds himself in Tangier, a city in northern Morocco, where a man he meets in a bar swindles him out of all his money. As a result of this unfortunate occurrence, Santiago realizes that he is like everyone else: “I see the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: Crystal Merchant Episode (I)Summary and Analysis Part 1: Melchizedek Episode
Summary At the local market, Santiago trades his old book for a new one, and just as he is becoming absorbed in it, an old man asks him what he is reading. When Santiago shows it to him, the old man says that the book is important but irritating. The […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: Melchizedek EpisodeSummary and Analysis Part 1: Dream-Interpreter Episode
Summary A shepherd boy named Santiago retires for the night in an abandoned church with his flock of sheep. An enormous sycamore tree has grown in the place where the sacristy used to be. This is where Santiago falls asleep and dreams a recurring dream. The next morning, Santiago talks […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: Dream-Interpreter EpisodeSummary and Analysis Prologue
Summary An unnamed alchemist reads a variation on the Greek myth of Narcissus, the beautiful boy so enchanted by his own reflection in the surface of a lake that he falls into the water and drowns. In this version, the lake in turn is in love with its own reflection, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PrologueCharacter List
Santiago Shepherd boy, the protagonist of The Alchemist. He travels from Andalusia in southern Spain to the Egyptian pyramids in search of hidden treasure, learning life lessons along the way. Santiago is a dreamer and a seeker, and he stands for the dreamer and seeker in all of us. Old […]
Read more Character ListBook Summary
While sleeping near a sycamore tree in the sacristy of an abandoned church, Santiago, a shepherd boy, has a recurring dream about a child who tells him that he will find a hidden treasure if he travels to the Egyptian pyramids. An old woman tells Santiago that this dream is […]
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